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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27617447">What Remains</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/V6ilill/pseuds/V6ilill'>V6ilill</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Estrangement, Family Issues, Family Reunions, Gen, Guilt, Hurt No Comfort, One Shot, Phineas and the Captain are family, Psychological Horror, Tragedy, the Captain is the Courier's grandchild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 03:22:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>717</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27617447</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/V6ilill/pseuds/V6ilill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Courier's descendants try to salvage humanity's future in the stars.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Captain &amp; Original Characters, The Captain &amp; Phineas Welles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What Remains</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>On the year 2320, two ships set sail, carrying with them humanity’s future. <em> Hope </em> and <em> Groundbreaker </em> - both synonymous with <em> courier six. </em></p><p>The Courier’s family was supposed to enter the brave new world together. They were supposed to awaken at once and put their scientific minds to work solving any problem the colony would face.</p><p>That would never come to pass. The Halcyon Holdings Board convened. Decided. Sabotaged. Their pleasure paradise and personal enrichment grounds would grow unsupervised.</p><p>And all would be as planned if not for a clerical error.</p><p> </p><p>“I can’t believe they won’t let you swap places with some janitor,” Sothy hugged her younger brother “You’ll arrive a full yeat earlier than me -  that would <em> almost </em>make us the same age!”</p><p>“Hardly something to concern yourself with when I’m <em> taller </em> than you,” Adam replied, smirking “Don’t you worry, I’ll make sure our family lair will be the best domicile in the neighborhood.”</p><p>“With <em> you </em> picking the site, I can’t help but remain worried,” Sothy elbowed him playfully “Nevertheless, it seems the only thing I can do is trust your judgment. Have fun without me, bro.”</p><p>“I’ll certainly try. Farewell, sister.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me, brother?” Sothy paced the hallway, hands clasped behind her back.</p><p>“Tell you what? That I brought you back because you were the oldest one left?” Phineas snorted “That one day I was given my family back, and the next I was an orphan? Would I be here today if you had known then?”</p><p>Adam Boone, amateur biochemist, violin enthusiast, unfashionable cat lover, grandson of Courier Six, was dead. In his place stood Phineas Vernon Welles, hardened space pirate, unfazed by any tragedy, who had no kin, no family and nothing holding him back.</p><p>Sothy’s brother had died thirty-five years ago in a dark and dusty lab at the edge of the galaxy, leaving behind his sister and kiddie cousins. Her <em> little </em> brother left alone to grow old before she was even twenty-five.</p><p>“Why did you think you could resurrect them?” <em> Don’t say the names don’t say the names don’t say the names </em> “Why did you keep trying after you failed?”</p><p>“Overconfidence,” Phineas shrugged “Every time I thought I had the solution, another one died.”</p><p>Another one. That’s all each one of<em> them </em> was. Just a genealogical link between one hero and the next. Vault Dweller, Chosen One, Courier, Captain of the Unreliable - heroism always skipped a generation, leaving unmarked graves and forgotten lives between tales of world-shaking valor.</p><p>“Courier Six gave everything for a future in the stars,” Phineas continued “I couldn’t sit by and let that legacy burn.”</p><p>Sothy glanced out of the illuminator. “Fat lot of good you did for Halcyon.”</p><p>“Your hands are bloody as well,” he smiled faintly “We’re all monsters here, Captain.”</p><p>Sothy wiped her hands against the wall. They were clean, but Monarch Stellar was no less dead. The test subjects in cryosleep would still never wake up. There was still no food.</p><p>“We did all we could,” Sothy lied. It got easier to say that with every time.</p><p>She wondered what the Courier would say to two errant grandchildren, both trying to salvage their family’s legacy and both failing in their own right. How she wished she could’ve met Six, but the hero of the Mojave was just as unreal to her as the man and woman who had conceived her.</p><p>“You did all you could,” Phineas corrected “I just failed.”</p><p>Sothy opened her mouth to object, but realized she had no idea what to say. That which Adam had found comforting, Phineas scoffed at. He didn’t even call her sister.</p><p> </p><p>“My eyes hurt,” Berenice declared, pouting and squinting “You’re not mom.”</p><p>Sothy swallowed bile. She was the eldest cousin now. “She’s not here.”</p><p>“Why not?” Berenice turned her head “Is she still cry-oh-freeze’d?”</p><p>“Cryofrozen,” Sothy corrected mechanically, glancing over at the other pod. Vera was stable. “Your mother is dead, Bera.”</p><p>“Oh,” said Berenice. She tried to sit up. Sothy stiffly extended her arms and lifted the girl against the cryopod’s side.</p><p>“Where’s dad?” Berenice continued.</p><p>“He’s gone,” Sothy stroked her hair with numb fingers “It’s just us and your sister Vera now.”</p><p>Phineas Welles watched from the sidelines. Unlike the Captain, Courier Six's only surviving grandson had no family to reunite with. </p>
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